the process of remembering: a photoblog by andrew huth

“Derkins”

Her name is Suzy.  During our college days, my nickname for her was Derkins after Calvin’s friend Susie Derkins of the Calvin and Hobbe cartoon.  She was the ever sweet and smart friend and I was the goofy mischievous guy who would always mess with her and her dissection tools during Biology labs.  We were destined from the start to become friends and together we shared many laughs—and oh boy does she have a laugh.  A deep rolling inhalation type of laughter that starts off largely silent with a hint of a masculine depth at its bass that rolls into a more delicate higher pitched squeal near the top.  It expresses clearly that she is living fully in that moment.  Laughs by it very nature are infectious, but hers are so at a pandemic level.

Today she is Dr. Derkins (I mean Dr. Suzannah Strauss) and she continues to possess a fierce intelligence and an appetite for adventures that has taken her to places far and exotic (both for pleasure and as an animal surgeon).  Those three facts alone I suppose could lead someone to think she is a hard shelled, don’t get in my way, do whatever I need to succeed sort of woman, but that wouldn’t be the most complete truth of her.  Nobody truly understands the mysterious depths of anyone with unshakable certainty, but what makes her a truly remarkable friend, at least to me, is that her ambition, intelligence and adventurousness are wrapped within one of the sweetest and kindest souls you could ever meet.  Derkins, I will always be the Calvin to your Derkins and I’m so grateful for our friendship and all the laughs we get to share.

When she asked me to take her photo at our friend’s wedding, this was MY GOAL: 2 minutes to capture a natural portrait that highlighted the light-hearted fun aspect of my friend’s personality while allowing her radiant and beautiful soul to emerge through her face and expression.